Taking a monkey from the forest is wrong. Buying and selling them is wrong. But the biggest crime of all is maltreating or abandoning them.
We publish in English and Spanish. Spanish translations are by Gabriela. We welcome visitors. Our e-mail address is
philip.cordrey@gmail.com.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Enclosures not cages.

At Canaote we try very hard to give our children a natural home. Each of our enclosures is LWH, Long Wide and High. You notice we call them enclosures and not cages. There is a difference. A cage is where you keep a wild animal. Our children are wild animals but they have been introduced to human comforts and treated like small humans. Tugging away all their new learning would be cruel and unnecessary. Each enclosure has at least one live tree. Each has a house with a roof and comforts like a weather proof door and blankets and pillows within. All the enclosures have bamboo walkways, swings and hoops. Dependent on the inhabitant, there are various other toys to keep them occupied. But toys are not enough. We have to address their social needs as well and this is not easy. The monkey has a hierarchical society with the alpha monkey at the top. He is the king. Lesser monkeys like young males have to learn their place. In the case of an alpha who takes over a weaker chief, he will kill or chase off the young males in the group. It is a gruesome event.So we have to be very careful when a new child arrives. We have to consider the existing social setup in the group.Where possible we put an adult female with an alpha male. One of the greatest psychological pressures on the adult female is when she comes on heat. This happens several times a month.At the time of writing Roquacita is on heat. She is very troubled. She has chosen me as the object of her love. During this period she wants to be with me all the time. Whenever I pass her enclosure, she runs to me. Whenever I enter the enclosure she clamps herself to my leg, making sexual signs with her mouth. Eric has escaped several times recently and he has targeted her enclosure. We allowed him to enter, thinking perhaps that they would make a pair. She regards him as too young for her affections. They have been together now for a week but there is no sign of them getting fond of each other. They sleep separately. We have not been able so far to find the hole he is using to escape. We will wait until we have found it to return him to his own house. We have been thinking that Monito would be a better spouse for Roquacita. In time we will introduce them. All this shows the difficulty of pairing monkeys to their social needs.